1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to system security in computing equipment used in data communication. Particularly, the invention relates to the monitoring of information relevant for system security in electronic devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays security is becoming more and more of a hot topic in all computer communications. Most operating systems and application environments have proven to be vulnerable for a variety of attacks. An important type of attack is the so called system hijack situations where a malicious software component or application, in other words a Trojan horse, abuses the system. The most common abuse scenarios include information stealing, engaging in unauthorized commercial transactions on behalf of the system user and using the system for distribution of junk E-mail and so on. Previously mobile phones have largely been outside the threat of such attacks, but since the introduction of more versatile application environments making the mobile phones equivalent to portable computers some kind of abuse scenarios have ineluctably also made their way to mobile phones.
Such measures as secure protocols, anti-virus applications and firewalls have been introduced to mitigate the problem associated with malicious software. Despite these measures systems are still being hijacked. Even if systems in fact were secure in the end users are still left in doubt as to the present security status of their computers. In present day systems there is little possibility for users to actually verify and monitor the security relevant activities going on in their systems. For example, Microsoft WINDOWS™ provides a task manager function for presenting the applications currently running in the system. However, in the task manager there is no information as to the trust of applications and whether or not they are engaged in data communication activity.